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Not to sound like I’m making wine with sour grapes…but…last night’s game between the Calgary Stampeders and the BC Lions at McMahon Stadium was, in my humble opinion, not decided by the players. The referees seemed determined to ensure the home team walked away with the victory. The interpretation of certain plays by the officials were, at times, laughable and were all in favour of the Stampeders. Some of the calls the refs made were extremely creative.

Where to start? Let’s start with the one that seemed to confuse every objective football fan who thinks they know something about the rules of the game, including the TSN play-by-play team of Chris Cuthbert and former CFL star Glen Suitor. Yes, I am referring to the Nick Lewis “catch” on the 3 yard line with the game tied at 17. Calgary Stampeders receiver Nick Lewis leapt into the air to catch a Henry Burris pass and was hit while in mid-air by a Lions defender. Upon coming back to the ground the ball popped out of his grasp and into the hands of Lions safety Barron Miles before hitting the ground. So, as a former football player, and long -time football fan, I celebrated what appeared to be either a Lions interception or fumble recovery…depending on wether the officials would rule it as an incompletion which was intercepted at it had never hit the ground, or a fumble recovery as the receiver did not survive contact with the ground as clearly stated in the CFL rule book.

The game officials, who set a new standard in incompetency time and time again throughout the game, upon reviewing the play when challenged by Stampeders head coach John Hufnagel, ruled that Nick Lewis had not only caught the ball, but survived contact with the ground, did not fumble the ball, and was ruled down by contact. This took some serious creativity to come up with an explanation that favoured the Stamps. There is no way that he was down by contact as the only part of his body that hit the ground after contact was his elbow which caused the ball to come loose, thus, by definition, resulting in Lewis not surviving contact with the ground. The officials explaanation was inherently self contradicting. Oh well, no matter…this is the CFL after all…logic, reason and the rulebook should not come into deciding a key play in the game.

On the ensuing play, Henry Burris threw a pass to Jermaine Copeland in the endzone. Copeland stretched out to make an athletic catch mere inches from the ground hanging out of bounds but with both feet in bounds. The problem? His knee was touching the out of bounds line. No problem says the ref. After reviewing the play challenged by Lions head coach Wally Buono the head referee declared that the TD would stand because Copeland did in fact have both feet in bounds. Of course, that was never the question…Buono challenged wether his knee was out of bounds before the catch…which it was. But that is neither here nor there.

Later in the game, yet another controversial catch by another Stamps receiver saw a catch made in mid-air and the receiver falling to the ground when a Lions DB would strip the ball from the receiver. Fumble! BC recovers, right? No…this is the CFL…and the refs were determined to not allow all of their previous hard work to go to waste. After another Wally Buono challenge, the referee declared that the Calgary receiver was, again, down by contact. But…what contact? The replay clearly showed the Stampeder receiver fell to the ground on his own and was never touched…the only contact coming on the stripping of the football. Again….Wally Buono was wrong! I wonder how he became the CFL’s all-time winningest coach…clearly (at least in the referrees minds) this man has no clue about the rules of this game despite having played and coached in the league at the highest level for decades.’

There were several other, albeit smaller, descrepancies throughout the game all of which favoured Calgary. Holding only called when BC did it, roughing the passer only called once on a borderline soft call against the Lions despite Buck Pierce taking multiple Stampeder head shots, pass interference called only one way, etc. I know being a ref is hard. I know they are human and make mistakes…but when there are that many mistakes? and they ALL favour the same team? it leaves on to wonder.

It is a shame, really. There are so many great athletes and coaches in the CFL. The style of play leads to an exciting brand of football as well…its just too bad the standard of officiating is dismal and greatly affects the outcome of the game again, and again.

Well, it appears the Casey Printers/BC lions drama has come full circle. Fresh off a win over the Toronto Argonauts at BC Place Saturday which made him the CFL’s all-time winningest coach, Wally Buono has confirmed that he has had talks with former Lions QB and CFL Outstanding Player Casey Printers.

It is something that most thought would never happen, but with Jarius Jackson out for at least a month and Buck Pierce still not 100% from multiple concussions and what appears to be a rib injury suffered on Saturday, the Lions could very well be faced with the possibility of trying to resurrect the season and make the playoffs at the hand of one of two young and inexperienced QBs: first year Travis Lulay, or second year Zac Champion. This is not something Coach Buono would like to have to deal with. Therefore, a call to his former starter, and controversial character Casey Printers was made. Printers, though out of the game since his failed attempt at a CFL comeback with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, knows Buono’s system. Without the luxury of a training camp to bring a QB up to speed on the offensive scheme, Printers seems like the logical choice.

Can the two put their past differences behind them and get the Lions back into playoff contention? The next few weeks should be quite interesting. After all, Casey Printers’ career has been nothing if not interesting.

So, Wally…what now? The BC Lions 40 -22 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos Thursday at Commonwealth Stadium asked as many questions as it answered.

While it showed us that the offense is in fact capable of producing over four quarters instead of two, it asked us if this is only possible with Jarius Jackson behind centre. It answered the question of wether or not rookie kicker Sean Whyte was capable of filling in for veteran Paul McCallum, but asked if the defense played well or Edmonton’s offense stubbed their toe.

The biggest question brought about by this game…if Buck Pierce is healthy enough to play next week against Saskatchewan does he get his starting job back? Or does Wally go with Jarius Jackson’s hot hand? So? Wally? This is a question that has been asked more than a few times not only this season but every season during Buono’s tenure here in BC. Wally Buono’s embarassment of riches at quarterback over the years are a blessing and sometimes, it would seem, also a curse. After both losses this year Wally Buono has had to field questions over and over about wether Buck Pierce should be pulled in favour of former starter Jarius Jackson. Every time asked, Wally would shrug off the question suggesting there is no reason to question Buck Pierce’s performance and the media is just trying to stir up a quarterback controversy where there is none.

Tonight against the Eskimos, Buono’s hand was forced. Buck Pierce taking a shot to the head and leaving the game with what appears to be a concussion. Jarius Jackson stepped in and propelled the Lions offense to 38 of their 40 points…and he did it in impressive fashion. He stretched the Eskimos defense by throwing the ball downfield while sprinkling in a few good runs by Martel Mallet.

So what do we do, Wally? If Buck is good to go do you play the stubborn cagey old coach and put him back in claiming that he doesn;t lose his job to injury? Or do you “give him ample time to recover” and see if Jarius Jackson can keep the petal to the metal of the Lions offense? Either way, there will be a lot of questions this week for Wally to answer. Right after he answered a whole bunch of them this week. It never seems to end…does it?

Welcome to the premiere edition of The Sporting Vancouver Web Log. Here you will read about sports in Vancouver. Wether professional, amateur, or recreational, all sports will be covered. Vancouver sports teams and sporting events in the city will take center stage, but sports of interest taking place elsewhere will also be talked about.

We will venture to provide in-depth discussion and coverage of the most popular sports teams while also writing about lesser known local teams and events, thus providing a truly wide spectrum of sports coverage.

The latest Vancouver Canucks trade rumour, wether BC Lions head coach Wally Buono should start Buck Pierce or Jarius Jackson, will the Vancouver Whitecaps GM Bob Lenarduzzi ever convince city hall and the Port of Vancouver to give team owner Greg Kerfoot the go-ahead to build a soccer stadium with his own money? These are examples of the types of professional team sporting interests that will be discussed in this space.

We welcome comments on any of the topics discussed, as well as suggestions for topics or local sporting events to be covered.

We hope to serve the growing Greater Vancouver sports market and create a social media alternative to the traditional sports coverage we have grown accustomed to here.